Vsevolod Medvedev, Head of the Fourth Dimension Architectural Bureau, Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture of Industrial Buildings of the Moscow Architectural Institute:
“In 2016, Moscow Architectural Institute for the first time graduates bachelors according to the new,“Bologna”system. Then they will have a master's degree at the Moscow Architectural Institute or any other Russian or foreign university, and not necessarily an architectural one. But almost all the students of our group decided to connect their lives with architecture, and this is very gratifying.
We set a rather difficult task for the students - to develop a classic "marchish" diploma project for a specialist in three months, accompanied by video clips and mock-ups. Themes are varied, but necessarily large-scale, in the most important and relevant today urban areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The main task was to achieve a concrete result, a complete and meaningful architectural solution, without stopping at preliminary research and all kinds of "near-architectural" analytical research. For us, the most important thing is not the process, but the result, because if the process does not give a result, then it is incorrect and meaningless. If you see a huge amount of authoritative analytical research, backed up by a lot of evidence and fashionable schemes, and suddenly you end up with a transparent gray box, then something clearly went wrong. Therefore, after the blitz analysis, collecting design constraints and studying the assignment, we spent most of the time working on architecture in its normal sense. This is the search for new modern forms and spaces, urban planning and planning structures, non-standard design solutions, etc.
Creative ambition, determination and individuality are the most important qualities that we tried to cultivate in our students. We are satisfied with the result, quality, volume of work, and most importantly - the attitude of the students.
With the support of our bureau "Fourth Dimension" and the publishing house "Tatlin", for the first time in the practice of MARCHI, a catalog of works of one group "New Dimension" was published. It contains all the best works of our students from the third to the fifth year. And in early July, a large retrospective exhibition was held at the Union of Moscow Architects, which became a symbolic entrance portal to the big world of architecture."
*** Euro station and Russian Railways towers in Moscow
Polina Korochkova
The project covers an area of 19 hectares, on which the main building of the Euro-terminal will be located, as well as office towers of Russian Railways, a shopping center, a landscaped park and an embankment with moorings and a pier. The triangular section on Shmitovskaya Embankment near the City TPU is bounded from the south by the Moscow River, from the west by the Moscow Railway, and from the east by the Smolensk direction of the Russian Railways. The construction of a transport facility on this territory will allow to continue the design of the Big City (City-2), the largest investment project in Moscow, which is expected to be implemented after the completion of the construction of the Moscow City international business center according to the general plan of Moscow adopted in 2010.
Currently, the territory is an unused industrial zone. Eliminate the depressive nature of the site will allow the creation of a new point of growth of the city on this territory within the framework of the "City-2" project. The general development plan of Moscow in 1971 assumed the transition from a monocentric city with one center around the Kremlin to polycentricity. The concept of expanding Moscow's business center to the west and northwest has been frozen for several years. Within the framework of the "Big City" project, it is planned to build a large number of business-class housing, as well as, as stated in the general plan for 2010, "complexes that will free the center from offices."
According to the proposed Euro Station project, the TPU under construction will become a part of it, the TPU platform will serve passengers of short-distance trains. The rest of the platforms will accept all trains from Europe arriving in Moscow, as well as Aeroexpress trains to Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports. It is proposed to unload the Paveletsky and Kievsky railway stations, while retaining the function of commuter trains. Thus, the Eurovokzal will make it possible to quickly transfer between long-distance trains, metro trains, buses and taxis, as well as branded express trains and aeroexpress trains. A large bus station complex is supposed to be located in the stylobate.
I wanted to design the station building as modern as possible, representing a pure form, while symbolizing speed and movement. The main volume contains floors with waiting functions, two volumes supporting the main one are the arrival and departure terminals.
The station complex has two areas. The station square is located at an elevation of 6 m, there is a bus station under it. Taxis and private cars drive up there, as well as the passengers of the metro station located under the tracks of the Moscow Railway. Smoothly lowering, it flows into another area, located one level below. She already has another function - a recreation area. There are cafes, entrances to the shopping center, tennis tables and other entertainment. The square is part of a regular parkland. Now on the projected site there is a green massif descending to the banks of the Moskva River. According to the project, it remains unchanged. The rest of the undeveloped area will become a regular park with an embankment and berths. The composition will be completed by the pier building.
The compositional solution of the two towers for Russian Railways offices is aimed at maintaining the volumes of Moscow City, at the same time they do not compete with their dominant function. To create a vivid and memorable image, as well as to fulfill the requirement for the maximum permitted areas and increase the number of storeys of the towers, large open spaces - "Windows" are organized in their bodies. The river offers a view of the Euro Station building through the atriums of office buildings. Office towers of Russian Railways have a clear planning structure with the possibility of free or office planning.
*** Agro-industrial complex on the territory of Expo-2015, Ro, province of Milan
Anna Tuzova
The site chosen for design is located on the territory of EXPO 2015. After the end of the exhibition, the fate of the site seems to be very controversial, various bureaus offer their concepts for its further development, and various competitions are announced. I took part in one of these contests. Participants were asked to design a vertical truss no higher than 20 m, allocating 40% of the site for student housing.
The theme of EXPO 2015 was formulated as “Food for the planet, energy for life”. 145 countries took part in the exhibition and presented their vision of the global environmental problems of mankind and possible ways to solve them. Two problems that were especially frequently mentioned in the pavilion displays were the lack of fresh water and the overuse of land for agricultural purposes.
One of the main solutions to both problems is the creation of vertical farms. Modern technologies make it possible to exclude the land from the process of growing plants, supplying nutrition to the roots through the water. This process saves 70 to 95% of water, since it does not go into the soil, but is reused.
The main idea of the project was to go further and make the most of a fresh water source such as precipitation. Milan is a very rainy city, rich in this resource. The main part of the composition of the complex is made up of hyperbolic structures, the upper half of which collects water, and the lower half of which is occupied by greenhouses. Water passes through a filter installed in the narrowest part of the hyperboloids, and its excess is stored in underground reservoirs. According to my calculations, about 21 million liters of water can be collected in this way per year. This does not cover the entire required volume, but it makes up an impressive part of it, significantly alleviating the pressure on the city's water resources, especially given that the water in the complex is reused.
The development of a volumetric-spatial solution for this project was carried out taking into account the general style of the EXPO and the individual objects presented there, since it is very important for this site to preserve the atmosphere created there by architects from all over the world. So, the inspiration was the forms of the Children's Park, the Vietnamese pavilion and the main dominant of the exhibition - the tree of life (which, according to the project, is preserved on the site and becomes part of the overall composition). These objects also used shapes with some references to the shape of the hyperboloid. Also, the project continues the theme of the green facades, which was repeatedly used at the exhibition, which also allows increasing the volume of the harvest.
The second important sources of inspiration were the designs developed by the Russian engineer Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. The lightness and economy of such structures perfectly suit the concept of the project and are ideally suited from an aesthetic point of view. Functionally, the site is divided into four zones: in the southeastern quarter there are laboratories and training workshops, representing the scientific component of the complex; events, in the north-east - a block of services: shops, restaurants, a mini-market for fresh products. These four parts are divided by two axes, which are also the central axes of the entire EXPO site, which are preserved in almost all projects presented recently on the topic of further development of the site. The funicular moves along one of the axes. The hyperbolic structures are connected by a network of pedestrian bridges located at a height of 10 m in order to maintain the attractiveness of the complex for visitors. In my opinion, and based on the facts, in the opinion of the organizers of EXPO 2015, attracting public interests to the topic of environmental problems and technological advances in the field of agriculture is very important and beneficial for the future of our planet.
*** Reconstruction of the Finlyandsky railway station in St. Petersburg and the development of the adjacent territory
Yana Ostapchuk
St. Petersburg is the second largest center of the country's economic life, which is why it is very important to create new, modern economic and technological sites in the city's structure. These sites can be existing industrial areas. They are gradually beginning to lose their relevance, not only because in modern practice it is customary to move them out of town, but also because they occupy territories next to historical buildings, along embankments and are located in close proximity to residential areas. The districts of St. Petersburg located next to such industrial zones are becoming unattractive both for ordinary people and tourists, and for business. The Vyborgsky district, in which the reconstruction project has been developed, is currently such. This became the main reason for choosing the Finlyandsky railway station and the adjacent territories as a diploma work, since they have a huge potential for the development of the urban environment and the city as a whole.
The territory of the developed site is almost 13 hectares and consists of a pier, Lenin Square, a station building and a technopark.
The main strategic decision of this project, which forms a new quality of the environment, is to move the railway tracks underground, at the -9.500 mark. This helped to create new squares in a significant part of the territory, where a technopark with a projected new grid of streets is located. The Technopark consists of office centers, hotels, research centers with an industrial part, a fitness center, a shopping center, cultural facilities and various public spaces. A significant part of the developed area is a green area with recreational spaces and parks, as the city always lacks such areas. Thanks to such solutions, a comfortable and favorable environment in the social, economic and transport components of the project is being formed in this territory.
The artistic image is a single structural grid into which individual objects are inscribed or according to the principle of which are designed, for example, the fencing structure of the station's roof.
The idea of such a grid came from the analysis and study of the history of the station. As you know, during the siege of Leningrad, Finland was the only station in operation. Through it, food was delivered to the city, for which it was given the symbolic name "The Road of Life". The station was of great strategic importance during these years, and it was such important and significant objects in wartime in Leningrad that were covered with special camouflage nets.
It was thanks to these materials that the beginning of the development of the roof of the Finland Station was laid, which is the dominant in the project and represents a similar grid, but already as an architectural volume. The most harmonious and correct decision was to continue working in this mesh structure. On the one hand, it allows you to create an interesting and expressive image for the entire territory and objects, on the other, it can be transformed taking into account the surrounding buildings, while it does not lose its structure and uniqueness.
The main goal of the project is to create a favorable and functional environment that will become a new cultural, economic and social center of St. Petersburg.
*** International Marine Terminal in Murmansk
Olga Kuznetsova
Murmansk is the largest ice-free port, and now its main load is coal and other mineral resources, which over the years (over the past 30 years) have gradually replaced passenger traffic. Today Murmansk, due to its geographical position as the largest polar city and the capital of the northern sea route, is again becoming a point of attraction for polar tourism. The city authorities have already accepted on a trial basis several large cruise ships sailing from Malta and Norway.
In order for Murmansk to really serve as the "gateway" of Russia, it is necessary to reconstruct not only the sea terminal and create new public spaces along the proposed embankment, but also to link the city together, simultaneously solving the Murmansk transport problem caused by the fact that the entire nominal city center is separated from Kola bay by the October railway. To solve this tangle of historically formed urban planning problems and determine the vector of the city's development for the future, the developed project proposes a large-scale reconstruction of the entire central part of Murmansk. Thus, the main task was to create such an urban planning system in which the sea terminal would be appropriate.
Fundamental objectives of the project:
- create a large facility that will serve as a center of attraction for tourists and public life in Murmansk,
- develop an alternative option for using the current territory of the coal port (organize a container port, administrative center, slipways and public areas on its territory),
- propose a variant of a new transport system that could solve the problems of access to urban infrastructure,
- to express the general directions of the further development of the city with a strong urban planning technique.
The Marine Terminal is part of a vast multifunctional complex, through which various types of transport are connected. The Marine Terminal consists of two buildings - an international station and a station for domestic lines. The International Terminal is located at the end of a long man-made pier, which provides sufficient depth to serve passenger ferries.
An extensive area of railway junctions and a commercial port are located on the relief below the central part of the city. To solve the current transport problem of approaching the commercial port, it was decided to arrange overpasses that provide unhindered access to the facilities of the commercial port and the sea terminal. Thus, these overpasses are on the same level with the central part of the city.
The entrance to the sea terminal is divided into two levels - the entrance to the arriving passengers and the entrance to the outgoing passengers.
*** Agro-industrial complex "Timiryazevsky" in Moscow
Alena Gruzinova
The diploma project is based on the principle of three unities: combining such spheres as science, nature and architecture, a project of a vertical urban greenhouse farm is created. The essence of any project is also divided into three concepts: form, structure of the facade and, accordingly, plan. Considering each component separately through the concepts of form, facade and plan, analogies and observations from the surrounding world are drawn. Moving to the second level of detailed study and considering the project on a real site, the main concept takes a direction towards the scientific part and already considers the design solution by analogy with the protein structure of DNA.
The main concept of the diploma considers the design solution by analogy with the protein structure of DNA. The project is ideologically built according to the scheme, where an individual greenhouse-honeycomb on the facade is the smallest building component of the farm. It rests on the symbolic structure of the DNA-system of technological ramps. The tertiary and quaternary structure of protein is a figurative expression of the plan of the entire vertical urban farm and its general plan - the agro-industrial complex. The facade solution provides for the use of the latest materials and facade systems. In this case, Texlon pneumatic diaphragms made from environmentally friendly ETFE polymer film are used. This concept allows the building to become a light structure that harmoniously fits into the surrounding landscape, the panorama of the city, and at night it becomes a spectacular backlight for the night capital thanks to phytolamps with different lighting modes. Lighting can change depending on the growth rate of plants in different sectional blocks, which is reflected in the night illumination of the facade. The vertical truss is designed with the concept of continuous expansion and completion, like a sprout. It can increase the number of modules (flowering), or increase its constructive height (growth).
The vertical farm operates using three high-tech farming methods. The first of them is hydroponics - a system of cyclic irrigation of plant rhizomes with a special solution, with the possibility of organizing a fish farm. Such installations are modular greenhouses along the facade of the building, as well as on the lower floors of the vertical truss. On the upper floors there is a second, more progressive method of growing - aeroponics, using less water consumption. Here water vapor is used, and the roots themselves are saturated with more oxygen. The third and most advanced type of agricultural production is dinoponics, which uses ultrasound to grow plants. This growing method is only fragmentary in the vertical farm. It does not require water and irrigation of plants, which greatly simplifies the architectural and compositional tasks in the design.
As a pilot project, it is proposed to build a vertical urban farm on the territory of the RSAU-Moscow Agricultural Academy (Timiryazev Academy). This will make it possible to free up the vast territory of the institute's experimental fields for urban spaces and the construction of residential quarters, and move the entire laboratory, including production, to a farm.
The practical value of this project lies in the popularization of a new principle of farming along the path of intensive and rational use of land to eliminate the threat of a food crisis.
In the future, the pilot project will be able to solve such a problem as the renovation of depressed areas in former industrial sites due to its modularity and independence from the surrounding landscape. Vertical farms on the sites of former industrial complexes will saturate them with the new function of an agricultural complex and will not only green up depressed areas that need land reclamation, but will also be able to satisfy the needs of citizens for healthy and fresh food.
*** Renovation of the bakery named after Zotov in Moscow
Ekaterina Shomesova
The work is devoted to the study of the renovation of the bakery named after V. P. Zotov and the creation of the social and cultural life of Muscovites, as well as the development of an industrial zone of cultural centers and a culinary institute.
A feature of this study is the preservation of an architectural monument and the formation of life around it, focusing on the search for architectural and planning models for the design of universities, restaurants, industrial zones and combining just one complex. Revealing the peculiarities of architectural and planning solutions of public areas and creating an optimally comfortable environment for a person in historically developed buildings. In most Russian institutions there is no primary ordered structure of the campus, which turns it into an integral organism and gives it the opportunity to work and develop productively, having confidence in the future.
The innovative transformation of the educational process in the Russian Federation must necessarily affect the structure of reconstructed, newly built institute townships and educational ensembles. Combining different functions of the complex should attract the attention of visitors and recreate life in areas that are not in the city center.
Compositionally, the campus stands at the corner of Khodynskaya Street. and Presnensky shaft. It consists of five buildings of one storey, 3 floors, this height is not accidental, the projected complex should not exceed the height of the bakery, as it should remain the dominant feature.
The complex includes an institute, a library, restaurants, cafeterias, production workshops, administrative buildings, exhibition pavilions, as well as areas for the practice of university students. All parts are one volume, united by warm transitions at the level of the first and second floors.
The main idea of the building is built on rectangular volumes and arches, this allows to emphasize the importance of industrial architecture. This is a symbiosis of various functions, which are located, as it were, in separate buildings, but at the same time are inextricably linked by the total volume.
The main entrance to the institute is located in the courtyard of the complex, which allows to unite the social life of students and outsiders. The institute block consists of three floors. On the first floor there is an entrance group, a common recreation area, a cafeteria, a library. Also on the third floor there is an exit to an exploited roof, where there is a winter garden with the possibility of growing plants on it. Industrial blocks include changing rooms with showers, storage rooms, kitchens, workshops, and all the necessary auxiliary and service rooms. Administrative blocks consist of meeting rooms, offices, assembly halls and exhibition premises. The block of the classrooms and workshops themselves consists of two parts of the building, united by three-high rooms for informal classes and viewing of works. On the ground floor of the building there is a staircase-elevator hall and a recreational space.
